America’s Credibility Is at Stake "Nevertheless, America is bound to react to Assad's use of the nerve gas sarin. American President Barack Obama drew a very clear red line months ago for the use or even the movement of chemical weapons.
"America's credibility is thus at stake, especially since the president has drawn another, far more important red line: that Iran cannot under any circumstances become a nuclear power. The Iranians will know how seriously they should take this threat if America now remains passive.
"That does mean that America should react with ground troops or a full-scale war. The West could follow the example of Assad, who has escalated his war against the rebels and his own people step by step in the past months. The West could do exactly the same."
George Will says Obama is right on Syria "People who talk incessantly often talk imprecisely, and Barack Obama, who is as loquacious as he is impressed with his verbal dexterity, has talked himself into a corner concerning
Syria and chemical weapons. This is condign punishment for his rhetorical carelessness, but the nation’s credibility, not just his, will suffer. His policy is better than his description of it, and his description is convoluted because he lacks the courage of his sensible conviction that entanglement in Syria would be unwise.
"Nine months ago,
Obama said: “We have been very clear to the Assad regime
. . . that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus.”
This is less a policy than a large loophole masquerading as a policy."
Emphasis added.
